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Who we are

Julie Mayhew

Julie is a writer/director. You can find her novels RED INK, THE BIG LIE, MOTHER TONGUE and this year’s title THE ELECTRICAL VENUS on the shelves of Berkhamsted Waterstones (and all good bookshops!) She writes short stories and drama for radio, and her most recent R4 play, POLYGAMY FOR GIRLS, which was part of the Riot Girls season alongside work from Margaret Atwood and Doris Lessing, starred Lauren Cornelius, one of our Speakeasy actors.

Rose Scarborough - Production Manager

Liz Penny - Executive Producer

The Berko Speakeasy Actors

Imelda Staunton

Imelda Staunton is
delighted to have been part of The Berko Speakeasy, as she considers Berkhamsted the absolute Bees
Knees. She is currently working hard in her garden
which she shares with Molly the dog and Carson the butler ….. so is thrilled to
be out of the compost heap for a few hours.
She trained as an actress.William Rycroft

William Rycroft has been working professionally with books for the last five years and is currently Audience Development Manager for Waterstones. Before that he was a keen book-blogger and also a narrator of audio books. Basically, he likes books. In his previous life as an actor he enjoyed long runs in War Horse and The Woman in Black, stints with the RSC and National Theatre as well as many other theatrical appearances and the odd spot in a TV medical drama.

Jessica Watson

Jessica is a
recent graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts' MA program in
Classical Acting. Born and raised in Canada, she moved to London to further her
theatrical knowledge and she hasn't been scared off yet. When she's not on set
or in the casting room, Jessica can be found reading, embroidering,
climbing trees, or having a few too many glasses of wine and attempting to
bake. She just finished filming in Derby and is delighted to bein Berkhamsted for this lovely event!

Judy Flynn

Judy is best known for The House of Eliott, The Brittas Empire and Dinnerladies. More recently she appeared in Ackley Bridge and can soon be seen in Hollyoaks. She voices several characters in Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom and Peppa Pig. Her writing credits include plays and short stories, two of which have been broadcast on Radio 4.

Adrian Scarborough

Adrian Scarborough has lived in Berkhamsted for 20 years. He can often be seen around town obediently trotting behind his glamorous wife and West Highland Terrier, 'Watson'. He tries not to be seen riding his folding bicycle, or on his allotment, haplessly hindering nature. Charitably minded, he always uses his CAMRA discount card at The Rising Sun. In his spare time he attempts to forge a career in the performing arts.

Megan Cusack

Megan was born and raised in a tiny corner of Southern Ireland before, for some mad reason she decided to move to London to train at LAMDA and attempt to be an actor. Having graduated in July 2018 she’s already appeared on an episode of Doctors, as a loud, slightly irritating drama student. Type casting at its best. Most recently she’s been cast in Edna O’Briens The Country Girls at the Abbey theatre, Dublin.

Lauren Cornelius

Lauren is a British actress born and raised in Camden, North London and ​is a graduate of Drama Studio London and ​is currently a member of the BBC Radio Drama Company. Recent credits include David McVicar’s production of Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House, Jessica in Merchant of Venice (BBC Radio 3), Chloe in Polygamy for Girls (BBC Radio 4), A Date With Shillelagh (short film), Margery Horsman in Holbein’s Skull (BBC Radio 4), Julie De La Mare in The Unforgiven (prequel to WAKING THE DEAD on BBC Radio 4), Jasmine in Earthquakes in London (directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair), and Leah in ​webseries ​That’s What She Said.

Steve Hay

Steve Hay is a boat-dwelling Oxford-based Scottish actor. Recent television includes hit series Outlander, and as a voice artist on feature films MacBeth, Tommy's Honour, and television series In Plain Sight. Recent theatre includes Macbeth in a bi-lingual international co-production at Kyrgyzstan’s national theatre, Tomorrow Never Knows in Lodz, Poland and Too Long The Heart for Siege Perilous in Edinburgh. He plays lead roles in forthcoming films The Anatomist and The Hanging Branch. Steve is also a regular reader and helps cast and direct Short Stories Aloud, curated by Sarah Franklin, and for John Retallack's Ruskin Theatre Platforms. He played JM Barrie in The Mythmakers in London's West End and in New York. He has appeared in several music videos and is a founding member of the Oxford Actors Network, Oxfordshire Theatre Makers and Inspires networking group. He also works for homeless charity Crisis, and used to be a journalist. Occasionally he still is.

Caroline Sheen

Theatre - Lead roles in Under Milk Wood (Watermill), Kiss Me Kate (Kilworth), Crazy for You (Watermill), Only the Brave (WMC), City of Angels (Donmar), Putting it Together (St James), Rags (Lyric), Les Miserables (Palace and Queens), Mary Poppins - Helen Hayes Award (UK/US Tour), The Light in the Piazza (Curve), Dick Whittington (Barbican), Once in a Lifetime and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (NT), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Palladium), The Witches of Eastwick (Drury Lane), Mamma Mia (Prince Edward), Into the Woods (Donmar), Grease (Cambridge/Victoria Palace). Film - Nativity Rocks, Les Miserables. TV - The Rook, Press, Henry VIII Mind of a Tyrant, Doctors, Torchwood, Hotel Babylon. Radio - Friday Night is Music Night. Solo Album Raise the Curtain, available on iTunes.

Richard Galloway

A Northern Irish Born Actor who trained at Bretton Hall '07 and has worked professionally across the industry since then. Highlights include: One man Show 'The Life and Soul' (Red Ladder), 'Home Truths' (Cardboard Citizens), 'Stones on his Pockets' (Contexture Theatre) and films 'The Rise' (Mischief Films) and 'The Pardoners Tale' (Oak Tree Films). In 2014 he co founded Buglight Theatre along with actress Keeley Lane which is now in its fourth year.Margaret Cabourn-Smith

Margaret Cabourn-Smith's TV credits include Motherland, Miranda, Peep Show, Psychoville, Holby City and Fresh Meat. She's also a Radio 4 regular; popping up in John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme, The Penny Dreadfuls, The Brig Society, In and Out of the Kitchen as well as podcasts such as The Guilty Feminist and Do The Right Thing.

Bessie Carter

Bessie Carter graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in July 2016. Her theatrical debut was JB Priestley's The Roundabout, at the Park Theatre. She then went on to be a part of King Lear, at the Old Vic and has since been in the BBC's adaptation of E.M Forster's Howards End, ITV's Doc Martin and Baskerville at the Liverpool Playhouse.

Kevin Murphy

Born in Newry, County Down, Kevin first studied Drama at Trinity College Dublin before training as an actor at LAMDA. Theatre credits include: One man play Honest (Bewleys Theatre Dublin), Juno and the Paycock (National Theatre & Abbey Theatre, Dublin), Arthur Miller’s The Man Who Had All The Luck, (King’s Head) Over The Bridge (Finborough) and The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Curve, Leicester). Television credits include: Warrior (HBO/Cinemax), Doctors (BBC), The Whistleblower (RTE), The Bill (ITV), The Year London Blew Up (CH4) and The Long Walk (BBC NI)

Melissa Berry

Melissa Berry is an actor, narrator and voice artist originally from South Wales. As well as loving being part of the Speakeasy troupe, she is also a regular member of the Short Stories Aloud team in Oxford and has narrated a wide variety of TV programmes over the years including Horizon, Ancient Apocalypse, Total Emergency and recent ads for RNIB and Moonpig (not the singing bit). Last summer she wrote and performed her first work in progress solo show Though Lovers Be Lost at the OffBeat Festival in Oxford.. She is hoping to develop this further this year either as a theatre or radio play.

Clive Hayward

Clive studied theatre at Royal Holloway College, London University, and went on to train at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School alongside Berkhamsted’s very own Adrian Scarborough. Clive has now worked as a professional actor for almost 30 years. He works regularly at the National Theatre, the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester and for BBC Radio 4 as well as making the occasional detour into television with popular series such as Law and Order, Prime Suspect, East Enders, Doctors and Channel 4’s hit show of 2016 - The Windsors. He has recently completed a three-year stint in the West End with leading roles in Yes, Prime Minister, the musical Top Hat and Much Ado About Nothing.

Michael Simkins

Michael is a familiar face in both live theatre and on the screen, usually playing policemen or unsuspecting husbands. He is also a best-selling author and journalist, which led Sir Ian McKellen to state, ‘It is thrilling Michael is having such success as a writer. Anything to keep him off the stage….’

Alice Orr-Ewing

Alice trained at LAMDA and her first job was in The Scapegoat, a one-off drama for ITV. Since then, she has enjoyed parts in stage and screen, a particular highlight being Hayfever in the West End starring Felicity Kendal. She has most recently performed in Don Juan in Soho at Wyndham's Theatre and is about to start working on A Very English Scandal for BBC One.

Wendy Nottingham

Wendy is best known for her collaborations with Mike Leigh, including the BAFTA award winning Vera Drake and Grief at The National. She reprised her recurring role of Mrs Crabbe in the final series of ITV’s Mr Selfridge and played new series regular Mary in Peaky Blinders. Most recently Wendy filmed A Children Act,alongside Emma Thompson, and performed in Diminished at the Hampstead theatre.

Julia Deakin

Julia has worked for over forty years in Theatre, Film TV and Radio. Memorable West End theatre work include: Title role in Educating Rita at The Piccadilly Theatre, Sam Mendes' production of Oliver at London Palladium, Noises Off at Comedy Theatre, Pride and Prejudice at the Old Vic theatre and On the Piste at the Garrick theatre. Numerous TV roles include Holby City, Boomers, Loaded, Spaced, I’m Alan Partridge, Coronation Street, Oh Doctor Beeching and many more. Films Include High Rise, Down Terrace, ( both with Ben Wheatley), Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead and Worlds End with Simon Pegg, Scoop ( Woody Allen), Liam (Steven Frears), Dancing Thru The Dark ( Willy Russell) and Mr Love ( David Putnam).

Emma Naomi

Emma
has recently finished playing Krystal in Don Juan in Soho at The Wyndhams. Other credits
also include, This Man Right Here (Hen and Chickens) The Crucible (Bristol Old Vic) and Deathwatch (The Wyndhams), she has also appeared in the film Housegirl.

Debra Gillett

Theatre credits include Limehouse
at the Donmar Warehouse, Young Chekhov:
The Seagull & Ivanov, Three Days
in the Country and A Small Family Business,
all at the National Theatre, Tartuffe at the Royal National Theatre, The Recruiting Officer at Chichester
Festival Theatre, Plenty at the
Albery Theatre, Vassa at the Almeida
at the Albery, Beckett Shorts at the
RSC and Blue Remembered Hills at the
Royal National Theatre. Television credits include Call The Midwife, Cranford Chronicles, Doctor Who, Footprints in the
Snow, Spooks, Dalziel & Pascoe and Cold Feet, Just William and Between The
Lines. Films include Bridget Jones’s Baby, Pride & Prejudice
& Zombies, Notes on a Scandal and Breathtaking.

Nick Ewans

Nick has appeared
in films including Shaun of the Dead, London to Brighton, Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel and 28 Days Later. TV
includes Channel 4's feature length Krakatoa. Nick has appeared in
one man shows at the Liverpool Playhouse and the Cochrane, other theatre
includes One Last Surviving at the Lyric Hammersmith. He also regularly
directs and performers stand-up.

After growing up in France, Abigail Richardson
moved to London to train as an actress. She recently graduated from the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her roles include
Marlene in Top Girls, by Carol Churchill, and Joanne in Company, by
Stephen Sondheim.

Kaffe Keating trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His work in theatre includes Johnny Got His Gun for Metal Rabbit; Posh at Nottingham and Salisbury Playhouses and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time for the National Theatre in the West End.

Anna-Marie Wayne

Anna-Marie’s professional career started at age 13 appearing alongside Honor Blackman in the hit ITV comedy series The Upper Hand and with Rowan Atkinson in Mr Bean. Her film work has included lead roles in Disappearing In America starring Mark Pellegrino, Number One Longing, Number Two Regret alongside Jenny Agutter, and in the Edinburgh Festival award-winning feature film Spike. UK stage credits include creating the role of Elisa in Solitary Confinement alongside Adam Garcia (ICA, The Mall), playing the leading role of Laly in Best Friends (New End Theatre) and Roberta in The Railway Children (King’s Head), to name but a few. She recently had the pleasure of voicing the audiobook of her sister Jemma’s debut novel “After Before”, and was the creator and host of the YouTube Channel, ItsMeAnnaMariein association with Disney-owned Maker Studios. She is an ongoing part of the cast of her father Jeff ’s Musical Version of The War of The Worlds – Alive on Stage! playing The Journalist’s fiancée, Carrie, a character she also portrayed in the music video for Gary Barlow’s interpretation of Forever Autumn.

Joseph Millson

Joseph has been shouting in the evenings and mumbling in the mornings for a living for twenty something years. Most recent evening excursions include playing David Garrick in Mr Footes Other Leg in the West End and playing Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe. He is about to go shouting at the RSC playing The Rover in The Rover. Most Recent mumbling in the mornings in front of cameras include leading roles in TV things such as Banished, The Last Kingdom, 24, Live Another Day, Penny Dreadful and significant film mumbling in The Chameleon , The Dead 2, I Give It A Year and Tango One. Lots and lots of radio work, which often contains both shouting and mumbling . Most recently as Soames in The Forsythes and George Orwell in the rather epic Real George Orwell series. Joseph is a proud Berkhamsted dweller.

Jane Slavin

Film and TV appearances include Lewis, Clocking Off, Holby City, Casualty, The
Bill, Falling Starr, Coronation Street, Doctors and many other things. She
played Cathy Jordan in ITV’s Always and Everyone for three years and she’s
toured the Theatre world, starring in Alan Ayckbourn’s Communicating Doors in
London’s West End. She won the BBC Carleton Hobbs Award and has appeared in
hundreds of plays for Radio 4.

Alex Wingfield

Having studied Music at Durham University, Alex trained in Musical Theatre at the Royal Academy of Music, where he graduated in July 2014. Since then, he has performed on stage in various roles, most recently appearing in The Railway Children at King's Cross Theatre.Geoffrey Palmer

Having been lucky to work with many of the Greats of his day - Olivier, Gielgud, Richardson and Paul Scofield, plus Arthur Askey, Harry Secombe, Jimmy James, Harry Worth and most of the Dames - Geoffrey now goes fishing.

Elizabeth Bower

Elizabeth Bower has appeared in Casualty and Silent Witness and played 'GP Melody Bell' for 2 years in BBC1 drama, Doctors, before being cast as feisty Spanish diva 'Anna' in Sky 1 comedy, Trollied. She will soon be appearing in 'The Secret Life of Boys' a new interactive comedy drama for the BBC. She also narrates novels for Penguin Audiobooks.

Will Harrison Wallace

Will's various stage work
includes: Richard III (UK Tour); The Water Engine (Old
Vic Tunnels); View from the Bridge (Broadway Theatre,
Catford); Marriage (Brady Arts); Save Me (Union
Theatre); A Respectable Wedding (Waterloo East Theatre); Peckham:
The Soap Opera (Royal Court); A Woman of No Importance (Clandon
Park); Merchant of Venice (The Cambria). He will soon be
starting rehearsals for The Corruption of Dorian Gray (The Lion and
Unicorn) playing Lord Henry Wotton and later in the Summer will be playing
Baron Wildenhaim in Lovers' Vows in various theatres in Surrey.

He
has played a number of diverse characters in several short films and will
shortly be seen as J.Edgar Hoover in an adaptation of the Stephen King short
story The Death of Jack Hamilton. His varied voice
work includes Radio, Animation, Corporate voiceovers, Exhibitions and
Narrations.

Will
trained at ALRA (The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts).

Matt Rippy

Matt grew
up in Houston, Texas where he attended the High School for the Performing and
Visual Arts and later became a Young Company Member at Alley Repertory Theatre.
Matt ran away with the Reduced Shakespeare Company in 1996 and has appeared
with them in five productions in the West End, Broadway and around the world.
Film credits include Beyond the Sea, Day
of the Dead, Boogieman 3, Jack Ryan and The
Monuments Men. On TV, Matt has been seen on Torchwood, Jonathan Creek, Wild West, Cracker, Bonekickers, Ultimate
Force and Secret Diary of a Callgirl.
Matt recently wrote The Bubble Bath,
a short film due to shoot late 2014, and is currently working on his first full
length stage play.

Richard Henders

Richard's theatre credits include 55 Days at Hampstead Theatre, The White Guard, The Cherry Orchard,Summerfolk, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Caroline or Change, The Merchant of Venice, Candide, Oh! What a Lovely War and Anything Goes all at the National Theatre. Pacific Overture (Olivier award Nomination) at the Donmar Warehouse.

Television credits include Holby City, Kingdom, The Inspector Lynley mysteries, The Chronicles of Narnia, Oranges are not the only fruit and Cadfael.

Claire Winsper

Claire’s theatre credits include The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, in the West End.

Afterlife, Never So Good, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Anything Goes and Singin’ in the Rain, all at the National Theatre. La Cage Aux Folles and The Witches of Eastwick in the West End and Acorn Antiques and Sunset Boulevard on tour.

Claire's other Theatre credits include Cinderella at The Old Vic, The Prince of Fire, Greenwich Theatre and The Cinderella Hunt at BAC.

Keith Drinkel

Keith Drinkel started his television work for Granada as Philip Ashton in A
Family At War. Other television work has included the title role in The
Higgler; Carter Brandon in two series of I Didn't Know You Cared and
more recently in Casualty; EastEnders and Judge John Deed.
Recent television performances were Bob, Liz Macdonald's dodgy boyfriend in Coronation
Street, and Terry Kinney in Midsomer Murders. He guest-starred in an
episode of Doctors which was seen last year.

His stage work has included seasons at Chichester and with The Actors'
Company. Favourite parts have included the title roles in Volpone and Cyrano
de Bergerac (Salisbury); Claudius in Hamlet (Ipswich); Iago in Othello
(Chester). In London he starred opposite Rula Lenska in Double Double at
the Fortune Theatre; and opposite Joanne Whalley in Kate at the Bush.

Keith has worked extensively on radio and has been a member of the Radio
Drama Company twice. His own adaptation of Wilde's The Picture of Dorian
Gray as a one man stage performance has played successfully throughout
England and at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival. He has played Laurence Olivier in a
new play at the Old Red Lion, which he repeated on Radio 4 with Roy Hudd as Max
Miller.

Adam LoxleyAdam Loxley’scredits
include: Mucky Kid / Theatre 503, Big Ask / Riverside Studios, Bush Bazaar /
Bush Theatre. Adam has also featured in Lee Nelson's Well Good Show on BBC3 and
is one third of This Glorious Monster a comedy group who have recently been
commissioned to produce original comedy for Hatrick Productions and PIAS
comedy.

Anna Savva

Anna has appeared on TV, most recently in EastEnders and Law and Order UK. On stage, Anna was nominated by Time Out for Best Actress as Frida Kahlo in Frida and Diaego. This summer she performed a one woman play in Macedonia. She has performed in Germany, Holland, Denmark, Berlin, Cyprus and New York and theatres in the UK.

John Lynn

John Lynn trained at the Irish Films Actors Studio and works as both an actor and stand-up comedian.John has been invited to perform at the Montreal Just For Laughs festival and has appeared on RTE’s Liffey Laugh’s, BBC’s One Night Stand and TV3’s The Third Policeman’s Ball.He is also in the process of completing his first novel.